The purpose of this blog is to share thoughts, comments and issues, as well as hints and suggestions that may help extend your own knowledge of family. As an advocate of DNA testing to support traditional genealogy, my focus is on DNA and newsworthy topics. Do not expect daily publication.
My own genealogy (nonliving persons only) is at www.doriswheeler.org and at http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=dorisw&id=I1128..

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Growth of DNA testing

Good news for genealogists and family historians everywhere!

As more advertising brings in more of the curious, DNA testing is beginning to grow at an exponential rate with Ancestry having now passed the 5 million mark. It was at 4 million just in April of this year. If you haven't yet done so, I hope you will join the growing hordes. The more who test, the more likely we will all find new cousins, new family connections, and grow our family trees.

But don't stop with an Ancestry test. Order a free transfer at Family Tree DNA to find still more matches, more tools, and the opportunity to do more testing -- Y-DNA (males only) for the direct paternal line, mtDNA (males and females) for the direct maternal line, advanced Y-DNA testing to take part in cutting edge science. A free transfer is also available to My Heritage.

If you are interested in health reports, you might also want to test with 23andMe. They offer a combined health and ancestry test.

Once you have tested, be sure to join Gedmatch (free) and upload your raw data from any one of these companies. It provides a treasure chest of tools to manage and evaluate your matches, as well as an ever expanding database.